Africa is a long way from winning a World Cup

Egypt defended her title from 2006 and became champions for the sixth time - logically, given that the team was the best tactically. But the step from being African champions to World champions is still huge.

Since Cameroon took the world of football by storm in the 1990 World Cup in Italy, many people have speculated as to when we will get a world champion from Africa. The recently held tournament in Ghana has given a clear and unambiguous answer: it is going to take a long time, a very long time.

Two teams, Ivory Coast and Ghana, have the material to go far in the World Cup in South Africa in two year's time. But there are reasons to doubt if they can really do that. Ivory Coast has world class players in all positions out in the field but have a clown in goal and are tactically deplorable. This was clearly shown when the Ivoirians collapsed in their semi-final match against Egypt. Moreover, stars like Didiér Drogba and Salomon Kalou played below form and displayed a bad attitude in most of the matches.

Ghana is tactically and defensively better equipped but lacks top class attackers. A talent like Asamoah Gyan has not lived up to the expectations one had of him after he played in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

The two teams in yesterday's finals cannot match up to the rest of the world. Egypt has the tactical competence but lacks world class players. The Pharaohs can hardly beat Sweden in a series of 10 matches.

Cameroon has the experience, the physical strength but the current generation of players has passed their best years long ago. It is no longer a nation that can come anywhere near what Roger Milla and his friends did in 1990.

charming and the football which is played there is cool. But the truth is different. This year's tournament has been bad in many ways. Attendance at the matches was poor, the pitches were useless, no new stars were discovered and only a few of the matches reached any high heights.

The final, however, managed to be great and nobody will question the fact that the better team won. Egypt, with a strong defence and great on the break, should have decided the tie already in the first half but it was not until the 76th minute before Aboutrika Mohamed found the net. It is typical of such things that the goal came about after a horrible defensive blunder from Rigobert Song.

Göran Bolin
Dagens Nyheter, Monday 11th